BUPE

Buprenorphine use in the Emergency Department...

  Nearly all doctors can freely prescribe opioids. Now a new movement aims to vastly deregulate an addiction treatment

Deregulating buprenorphine would make it far easier for Americans to get addiction care from their own doctors instead of being pushed through bureaucratic hoops and into treatment programs of varying quality, said Dr. Andrew Kolodny, the co-director of the Brandeis University Opioid Policy Research Collaborative. Currently, just 1 in 20 doctors have obtained the license necessary to prescribe it.

 Despite an opioid crisis, most ERs don’t offer addiction treatment. California is changing that

The moment that helped him survive came in October 2017, when he went to an emergency room not due to an overdose or an injection-related infection but to seek treatment for addiction. Unlike most hospitals in the US, Marshall Medical Center, an hour’s drive east of Sacramento, provided him with real treatment — particularly, buprenorphine, a highly effective medication that treats opioid addiction by mitigating withdrawal and cravings for the drugs.

 How France Cut Heroin Overdoses by 79 Percent in 4 Years

And the United States could, too.

 Opioid Treatment Is Used Vastly More in States That Expanded Medicaid

The states with the highest Medicaid prescribing rates for the anti-craving drug buprenorphine — Vermont, West Virginia, Kentucky, Montana and Ohio — all expanded the program.

 Strayerisms – Opioid Abuse and Buprenorphine

Move willing opioid misusers into treatment with ED initiated buprenorphine.

 When an Iowa Family Doctor Takes On the Opioid Epidemic

Few primary care doctors are willing to do what Nicole Gastala has: endure the challenges of prescribing buprenorphine, a medication for opioid addiction.

Monthly buprenorphine injections effective for opioid use disorders

Daily dose buprenorphine was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2002 and has proven to be effective in the treatment of opioid use disorders (OUD). However, daily doses require patients to recommit to taking medication every day and can result in cravings near the end of the 24-hour cycle. Although the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) did not fund this current study, it did support the development of buprenorphine as a treatment for OUD. NIDA’s support also contributed to the development and approval of another long-acting buprenorphine formulation -- a six-month subcutaneous implant for some patients who have stabilized on daily dosing (Probuphine®).

This Drug Could Help End Opioid Addiction

So why are only 3 percent of doctors prescribing it?

America’s Health-Care System Is Making the Opioid Crisis Worse

Arcane rules and outdated beliefs about addiction are keeping many people from getting treatment.

France had a big heroin epidemic in the 1980s and ’90s. Here’s how the country fixed it

In 1995, France made it so any doctor could prescribe buprenorphine without any special licensing or training. Buprenorphine, a first-line treatment for opioid addiction, is a medication that reduces cravings for opioids without becoming addictive itself. With the change in policy, the majority of buprenorphine prescribers in France became primary-care doctors, rather than addiction specialists or psychiatrists. Suddenly, about 10 times as many addicted patients began receiving medication-assisted treatment, and half the country’s heroin users were being treated. Within four years, overdose deaths had declined by 79 percent.

How Buprenorphine Implants Help People Fight Opioid Addiction

Even though buprenorphine can be used to treat opioid addiction, its efficacy is limited by the potential lack of adherence to daily, sublingual doses. To help increase medication compliance among patients undergoing buprenorphine treatment in the country, the FDA approved the first buprenorphine implant for the treatment of opioid dependence in May 2016. Called Probuphine...

How to Treat an Opioid Epidemic

As an opioid drug itself, bupe is a pharmacological replacement therapy, like methadone, the classic anti-addiction opioid medication. It prevents withdrawal symptoms and suppresses drug craving, and usually comes as a filmstrip that dissolves under the tongue. Bupe has some clear advantages over methadone. Its chemical properties make it less risky if taken in excess. And unlike methadone, which must be dispensed in clinics tightly regulated by the DEA, bupe can be prescribed by any qualified physician, who can refill a month’s worth of the drug from his or her office.

Methadone and Buprenorphine 101: A Guide for Law Enforcement

Methadone and Suboxone can be abused and diverted, but are far less likely to be than street opioids or prescription pain medications.

We Know How to Treat Opioid Addiction

But our antiquated conceptions of addicts prevent us from doing so.

What Is the Difference Between Buprenorphine, Subutex and Suboxone?

The generic drug buprenorphine, which is marketed under the brand names Subutex and Suboxone, can help you face the challenge of withdrawal and increase your chances of long-term recovery.